How does this remove usb to wipe data work?

[fervent lark]

Hi guys, i saw this video recently and i find it super interesting how it works. So i guess this guy was doing some crime on the laptop and when the cop removed the usb the laptop was wiped and all its data.

Heres the link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WWXCKGMHWSY

From what i gather the OS was booted using the USB and the data all lives in ram?

The deacription says it was like 4 years worth of data so im just curious how did this guy work on this laptop for 4 years? Did he always have it on? How does one guarantee the laptop will stay on always for 4 years or the usb wont slip out?

Cause like if it wasnt a big deal if he lost the data due to the usb breaking why wouldnt he just delete the data instead of keeping it for 4 years? Clearly it was of some value to him so why such a risky failsafe?

Just curious how it works and how the guy that got arrested interacted with the OS. Or did he do backups and then all the other laptops were locked without his access code and this laptop happened to be a “backup” that happened to be left logged in when they caught him?

[pure hill]

Did they actually say anything was lost? Sounds like they said tor was running off the USB, rebooting brought up a locked user account.

Almost seems to me they had tor on the USB so it wasn’t installed on the computer. Not as a fail safe. Just makes it so all evidence is off device

[fervent lark]

Not exactly sure🤔

A lot of comments said they were using Tail OS

Google mentions By routing all internet traffic through the Tor network and operating entirely in RAM, it leaves no digital footprint on the host computer once shut down

[fervent lark]

ohhh ok so the computer is just a frontend for some server somewhere else? And unplugging the usb just wipes any trace back to the original server and any data on the computer?

[pure hill]

I just didn't hear them say anything was lost, so my guess is that he was just putting any suspicious applications on that drive so they'd never be on the laptop's disk. You can run most stuff just fine that way.

Seems like there may be more info though because you mentioned comments talking about Tail OS and that there was 4yrs of data, none of which I can see on YouTube.

[fervent lark]

yeah i found it first on instagram this youtube was just one i found for the example

https://www.reddit.com/r/darknet/comments/12m8l5a/cop_fucks_himself_over_when_he_accidentally/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

heres a reddit post with the 4.5 yrs and the tailos thing

oh i guess the 4.5 years was from marketplace transactions